The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

I have been having a hankering for chocolate chip cookies. All right, if you must know, I’ve been having a hankering for chocolate chip cookie dough. And in that case, you have to bake them yourself to have dough access; you can’t just wait around hoping someone will present you with some cookies. I grew up on the Toll House recipe, but this time I decided to try the recipe from America’s Test Kitchen.

I love America’s Test Kitchen because they approach cooking like a science, very much like Julia Child did. If your dish turns out poorly, it’s not because you’re just not cut out for cooking; it’s because something is wrong with the formula. You need to find the fault in the formula and fix it, and your dish will be corrected. I love that approach because it makes me feel like cooking is not some mysterious thing for which only certain people have an innate knack. It is a skill that can be mastered by anyone.

I especially love America’s Test Kitchen’s approach because they tell you exactly why their recipe is going to give you awesome results. In this case, they told me that browning the butter, leaving out an egg white, and boosting the ratio of brown to white sugar was going to give me a more flavorful, chewier cookie than the Toll House recipe could provide.





A triumph. I celebrated by watching the Julia parts of Julie and Julia. Bon appetit!